Click here <\/a>for the latest on Manchester’s food & drink scene, gigs and more in our CityLife newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\nFor it’s none other than former Pop Idol star and West End favourite Zoe Birkett. Zoe first found fame as she chased her dream of pop stardom on the short lived ITV reality talent show and went on to make the finals.<\/p>\n
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Zoe sings alongside Gary Barlow and the band on Relight My Fire.(Image: Gareth Cattermole\/Getty Images for Take That)<\/p>\n
In more recent times she has become an acclaimed West End star, winning plaudits for her portrayal of Tina Turner in the musical about the icon in 2024.<\/p>\n
Zoe is seen at the start of the Take That show, and then you cannot fail to miss her at the spectacular finale. A giant spooky Circus Ringmaster puppet emerges onto stage, laughing as bursts of flames emerge.<\/p>\n
The ‘Ringmaster’ booms out a message to fans saying: “Ladies and Gentleman, for your entertainment the circus is filled with thrills and death-defying feats… The greatest show on earth some would say.”<\/p>\n
The voice deepens as it talks of another side to the Circus, the “dark side” and letting the “fire burn within you”. The puppet then begins to sing out: “Keep the fire burning” as the familiar strains of Relight My Fire ring out and the full cast of performers head out onto the stage.<\/p>\n
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Zoe is the face and voice of the creepy Ringmaster(Image: Gareth Cattermole\/Getty Images for Take That)<\/p>\n
And believe it or not, the face and voice of that spectacular puppet is Zoe. She has been joining the band on stage each night of the tour to sing the famous “Lulu bit” of Relight My Fire.<\/p>\n
But many fans may not have realised until now that she was behind the booming voice and spooky face that comes alive on the puppet.<\/p>\n
Zoe, confirmed the news to delighted fans earlier this month by sharing a video of her voicing the giant puppet on social media. She wrote on Facebook: “I don’t just sing it….. Face and voice of the biggest puppet this summer.”<\/p>\n
Fans say they’ve been “blown away” by Zoe’s starring moment in the show. Zoe, 40, is originally from County Durham, and has been appearing at all the Take That shows on the ongoing UK tour.<\/p>\n
Linda Cook wrote: “Relight my fire blew me away!! It\u2019s AWESOME!! You are epic Zoe.”<\/p>\n
Rachel Bell said: “You were awesome! We thought it was you and you blew us away. Loved you since Get Happy!”<\/p>\n
Susan Kemp added: “Best part of the show for me! Zoe Birkett you were amazing!”<\/p>\n
Take That play the Etihad Stadium onSaturday June 20 and Sunday June 21, before returning again on the final night of the UK dates on Wednesday, July 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She found fame in the early noughties, and now she’s winning an army of new fans in Take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1039628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,62517,4884,2465,696,13899,16,15],"class_list":["post-1039627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-etihad-stadium","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-music","tag-take-that","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116784701772835608","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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